How to Survive Flying with Your Infant

I recently took a very long trip with my eight-month-old son. The last two legs of that trip involved flying on a commercial airline. I used to fly a great deal when I was in the Air Force, but traveling with a small child opened up a whole new world for me. At times it was blissful, like the first flight when he fell asleep before takeoff and woke up just after landing, but there were other times that were less than pleasant, like during the second flight when he had no leg room because the gentleman in front of him reclined his seat and then we hit turbulence that made it impossible for him to sleep. Just a side note here: when an eight-month-old baby has no leg room in a commercial airliner, shouldn't that make an airline reconsider their seating configuration? Following are a few tips which should help parents who may be planning to travel by air with their infant.

Purchasing Tickets
Few Americans are aware that most domestic airlines offer half-price fares for infants under two-years-old. For someone like me whose eight-month-old is off the growth charts at 30 inches long and 28 pounds, having that infant sit on my lap through the flight was really a dreaded thought. Purchasing a seat on the plane for my son was just the first step. He would need an approved infant seat to sit in on the plane as well as in the car that picked us up at the airport. That meant that I would have to carry on at least my child and his car seat. Had I known about the fabulous new car seats that convert into strollers, I would have surely spent the extra money and bought one of those. Since the airline allowed me to carry on an umbrella style stroller, I managed to safely strap the car seat into the stroller for ease of motion through the airport as well as down the aisle of the plane.